When DuBose Heyward began his folk opera Porgy and Bess in the mid-1920s,
Charleston, South Carolina had seen better days. In the opening lines of
Porgy, Heyward described his home as "an ancient, beautiful city that
time had forgotten before it destroyed." Once acclaimed the "Queen
of the South," the city had suffered badly during the Civil War and
the ensuing years of Reconstruction. With debased agricultural resources
and few other economic opportunities, Charlestonians found themselves upon
hard times, "too poor to paint, too proud to whitewash." Grand
old colonial and antebellum mansions fell into disrepair and were often
subdivided into tenements.

Inspired by the city's rich heritage, a group of local artists and writers
spearheaded a dramatic cultural renewal. Heyward, for example, used the
byways of Charleston as the setting for his stories and the Gullah language
for his dialogues, while his collaborator George Gershwin applied the rhythms
of black spirituals to his compositions. Similarly, painters and printmakers
focused on the daily life of Charleston and its nearby plantations. Through
their watercolors, prints and books, local artists disseminated images
of their city to the world beyond its immediate confines. Artists from
elsewhere--including Childe Hassam, Edward Hopper, Anthony Thieme and George
Biddle--were attracted to the area and left behind their renditions of
the place and its people. As a result of these endeavors, the citizens
of Charleston began to appreciate more fully the city's historical, artistic,
linguistic and architectural treasures. The outcome was an artistic renaissance
that fostered civic pride and initiated Charleston's historic preservation
movement.

ALFRED HEBER HUTTY (1877-1954)

Alfred Hutty "Ashepoo" oil on canvas, 20 x 24 inches

"Come quickly, have found heaven." With these words, wired
to his wife back home, Alfred Hutty began an enduring love affair with
the city of Charleston. Invited there to establish an art school for the
Carolina Art Association, the Michigan native readily adopted "the
ancient, beautiful city" as his own. Having received instruction from
William Merritt Chase and Birge Harrison at the Art Students' League in
New York, Hutty arrived in Charleston an accomplished, well-regarded artist.
He was a consummate draughtsman, whose line alone suggested spatial relationships
and values.

Although his paintings reveal nothing of such linear aptitude, Hutty
achieved his greatest recognition as an etcher, while continuing to paint.
Indeed, painting came to be a relief from the monotony of continuous etching.
In 1940, he wrote to the art critic Leila Mechlin, "I have had a sort
of renaissance of pleasure in doing the water colors and I hope that some
of it has been transferred to the paper!" Hutty's works are represented
at the Metropolitan and Cleveland Museums of Art, the British Museum and
the New York Public Library.

"Until 1925," Elizabeth O'Neill Verner wrote, "I had
two hobbies, art and love of Charleston. I combined them into one profession."
Charleston born and bred, Elizabeth O'Neill Verner studied at the Pennsylvania
Academy of the Fine Arts under Thomas Anschutz before settling down with
her husband in Charleston to raise a family. Unexpectedly widowed, left
without means of support for her two small children and encouraged by her
good friend and fellow artist Alice Smith, Elizabeth became a professional
artist. A founder of the Charleston Sketch Club, Verner widely exhibited
her drawings, etchings and pastels. Her studies of Charleston market vendors,
rich in character, became her calling card, earning tremendous popularity
with Charlestonians and visitors alike. After a trip to Japan in 1937,
she perfected a technique for applying layers of pastel to silk mounted
on wood which she called vernercolor. With works in the collections of
the Metropolitan Museum, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Library
of Congress, Verner's stature as a national figure is undisputed. She,
however, considered her contribution to historic preservation to be her
greatest achievement.

Charleston native Alice Smith wrote in 1936, a mid-point in her professional
career, that "throughout my life have been trying to paint the rich
planting section of South Carolina, that long strip of flat lowlands lying
within the influence of the tides.. . ." The Lowcountry the artist
describes yielded endless marshes, beaches, cypress swamps, palmettos,
rice fields, egrets and herons as subject matter for Smith's brush, subjects
she imbued with an air of mystery. Rather than offering literal transcriptions
of particular places, Smith presented imaginary--yet plausible--views rendered
in a painterly, not photographic, style. Significantly influenced by the
work of Birge Harrison and Japanese prints, Smith's quiet coloration reflects
these models. In the 1920s, she taught etching to fellow Charlestonians,
notably Elizabeth O'Neill Verner. After 1924, however, Smith worked almost
exclusively in watercolor, the medium she found most conducive to depicting
the soft, hazy atmosphere of the Lowcountry. Smith's work is represented
in the collections of the Brooklyn, Hunter and High Museums, the Library
of Congress and at institutions across the country.

ANNA HEYWARD TAYLOR (1879-1956)

A South Carolinian by birth, Anna Heyward Taylor traveled and studied
extensively before returning to her home state to pursue an artistic career.
She purposely chose Charleston for its color, charm and, not incidentally,
as a source of limitless inspiration. After graduating from school in Columbia,
SC, Taylor went on to study with William Merritt Chase in both London and
Holland. A tour of the European continent was followed by a stay in Tokyo
and graduate work at Radcliffe College. In 1916, she arrived in Provincetown
just as B. J. O. Nordfeldt and other printmakers were creating the Provincetown
Print. That same year, she joined an expedition to British Guiana, where
she executed the floral studies that would later be translated into wood-block
prints and batik designs. Brilliant, contrasting colors and bold forms
combined to create dense, compact Taylor prints that exude an exotic flavor.

Taylor's works, like those of her peers, did much to promote Charleston's
allure and are today found in prestigious private collections and premier
public institutions. Steeped in the history and aura of the Low country,
these paintings and etchings instilled pride in local residents and brought
national attention to the city they honored.

PUTTING IT ON PAPER

Saraland Press of Spartanburg, South Carolina will publish a handsomely
illustrated volume on the Charleston Renaissance to be issued in 1998.
Martha R. Severens, Curator at the Greenville County Museum of Art, will
serve as project director and author of the book. She earlier held similar
positions at the Gibbes Museum in Charleston, SC and Portland (ME) museums
and has published studies of James Fitzgerald, Charles Fraser, Alice Ravenel
Huger Smith and Andrew Wyeth.

Robert M. Hicklin, Jr. is the president of Robert M. Hicklin, Jr, Inc.,
Spartanburg, SC, the nation's only gallery specializing in fine art of
the American South.